Useless Times – The Dobbin Block Video

March 12th, 2012 | 2:54 pm | Footage | 2 Comments

If there’s one thing you could expect to be released almost a half-decade late, it’s a New York skate house-endorsed skateboard video. Useless Times can now be placed alongside other defining video Vimeo documents of the previous decade’s “spots-that-aren’t-spots” movement. It also might be the first skate video to embrace Chris Brown, and all the hard work he has put into steering misguided urban teenagers to scooters and away from skateboards. We don’t have many requests for greater skate industry music supervision in 2012 — most of our wishes will inevitably go unfulfilled as editors queue up tracks off the Drive soundtrack 11 months after the fact — we’re just hoping that at least one major skateboarder skates to C. Breeze before the world ends this December. This video is a step in the right direction.

The video is a compilation of footage from over the past five or so years. Features James Frankhouse (with a part full of quintessential #phatstylez moments), Jeff Ricker, Sweet Waste, Dave Caddo, Alex Davis, Jon Newport, Yelawolf, Conor Fay, Kevin Brennan, Jerry Mraz, Mike Mike, Lurker Lou, Jahmal Williams, 80s Joe, Curtis Rapp, and Greg Huff.

“Take your time, take your time, take your sexy time…”

Coda Skateboards ‘Slappy Hour’ Promo

July 2nd, 2011 | 11:41 am | Daily News | 3 Comments

Coda has a short new video out. Ten minute video, seven minute bonus/credits section. A bit lighter on the memorable New York location scouting than their last video was, but it’s still going to send a handful of spot sharks onto message boards with screenshots and requests for directions. (Actually, does anyone even use message boards anymore?) Only full parts are from Conor Fay and Jerry Mraz, but there are plenty of features, including Pat Smith and Loose Trucks Max. At least 50% of Jerry Mraz’s part looks like it was filmed in the middle of the projects. If you know of a bank spot in the middle of some buildings, it’s probably in here. He also does a middle of the street 360 shove, 360 flip immediately after combo that Carroll did in another middle of the street masterwork. It’s one of the best two trick flatground sequences that exists for line choreographers today.

Added bonus: No annoying soundtrack. Chuck Berry, Lynyrd Skynyrd. There’s no Nelly, but not exactly anything you can complain about. Be sure to stop by Coda Skateboards.com to check out what they have going on. Have a good weekend.

“Bad Grammar Overload”

May 18th, 2011 | 10:28 am | Daily News | 8 Comments

Photo by Jordan Zuppa

Yesterday, the fortune of Ohio athletics took a turn for the better, so we felt compelled to share some skateboarding from QS-favorite, and Ohio-bred athlete, Loose Trucks Max. The part is a bonus section to accompany a crew video entitled Whassamattayou (presumably a nod to the endlessly quotable “Trilogy of Error” Simpsons episode, but perhaps that phrase has some greater non-sensical meaning.) As explained here, the actual video is thirty minutes of footage filmed on a digi-cam, and the creator was adamant about excluding footage filmed on the a three-chip Mini DV camcorder, which is a device that may have had some prominence within civilization some ten years ago. The tricks filmed with a “real” camera were reserved for this bonus part featuring difficult wallies, “BAM 2″ footage, and Gino homages. Limiting a thirty-minute video to digi-cam footage while calling a part filmed on a VX a “bonus” is a good look, at least as far as this website and its neglect of proper documentation techniques is concerned.

If you’re interested in the whole video, you can watch it here. It’s definitely a “by the homies, for the homies” sort of outing, but check it out. They have some Kool Keith and Bill Withers in there.

2nd Nature’s “Eclectic” Video: Now Online

March 14th, 2011 | 4:26 pm | Daily News | 3 Comments

2nd Nature uploaded their complete full length video, Eclectic, on Vimeo. The video features several Quartersnacks favorites that have been championed on here since the original Watermelon video (the first and last video to premiere via a projector on a Lower East Side handball court back in 2006) including Watermelon Alex, Jose Pereyra, Lil’ Chris, Brian Brown, and a handful of others. And it’s certainly great to still see Burton Smith ripping on a skateboard. Lil’ Chris is in the early running for being Quartersnacks’ 2011 Skater of the Year. But who knows how this year will turn out? You know, with a new Busenitz part, Ishod Wair’s debut, a *potential* Jake Johnson comeback, and Dylan Rieder’s consistent handsomeness all upon us…

It’s amazing that in such (perhaps the most?) an anti-car city, actually having access to one significantly expands your options in terms of how many skate spots are at your disposal. Much of this video is filmed a few dozen miles outside of the city, yet the 2nd Nature dudes are pretty much the only ones you ever really see with footage at a few key locations. (The same could be said for your token Jersey video, and the respective crew/region it covers.) So many people skateboard in 2011, yet people are able to maintain small niches of crew-oriented spots just a few miles outside of one of the biggest cities for skateboarding in the entire world, and that’s definitely a great thing.

Thanks to Armand, Doug, and everyone else at 2nd Nature for producing this video and uploading it online. Check out 2nd Nature’s site and follow the shop on Twitter.

INFMS: All fifteen minutes of it

February 4th, 2011 | 2:59 pm | Time Capsule | 6 Comments

Infamous Skateboards’ fifteen-minute video has avoided a one-part internet revival for quite some time. It has occasionally been chopped up on YouTube, but most of the music is usually stripped away thanks to WMG’s notoriety for clinging to an outdated business model. I *think* this was released around 1999 or 2000 (there’s no date in the credits), a few years before Infamous folded altogether. Puleo’s part gets all the YouTube accolades (and has been on there for probably as long as YouTube has existed), but there are some other solid portions throughout the video’s concise duration, including Nikhil Thayer’s demonstrations of how to properly perform flip tricks, Moya skating in Peter Smolik’s pro model, some young Ian Reid footage, a few bits of Jahmal Williams, some pre-Logic 6 footage of Andy Bautista, and a really sick throwaway montage set to John Lee Hooker after the credits that’s as long as the actual video. Not to mention a glimpse at the less friendly days of Pyramid Ledge security guards. (“You dreadhead muhfucker!!!”) Infamous always had pretty nice, subdued art direction that didn’t shove “East coast, yo!” down your throat and still maintained an identity, so with a to-the-point video like this, it would’ve been sick to see where it could’ve went if it was around for a few more years.

It’s kind of crazy that this and 511 are the only videos from New York based hard goods companies (besides the Zoo videos) to exist from this period. But not as crazy as Funkmaster Flex doing voiceovers for Rawkus commercials at the end of skate videos.

Have a good weekend.